The Rust
by Tsumugi Eternity
Summary: A series of drabbles that explains why and how Niou befriends Yagyuu
1. Grey

**Hello readers! This is pretty much a drabble series. Not much is to be said, except how I will finish this series. I solemnly swear on that. **

**Warnings: Suicide 'attempt', confusing use of language, hidden content, unseen grammatical mistakes**

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Grey was the sky. So was he, and everything around him.

"It's too grey." A sigh escaped from the lips of a young lad, sitting nonchalantly at the edge of a rooftop. Soft breeze passed by him, brushing his platinum locks with a soothing touch. His cerulean orbs shifted from the sign of impending rainfall to the minuscule students walking systematically around the school field like working ants. It was recess, yet they were chained nonetheless to the boring life the school offered. Robots, he muttered to himself.

First day of school was supposed to be the brightest day of your school life; the said day when school was devoid of studying. Sadly, Rikkaidai was too high-rated to give such luxuries to its students, or as Niou called it, too grey.

Not even a second into his first day, the teachers were thoroughly prepared to pass down their knowledge. The day started with an orientation- a welcome speech. Then to the class everyone went, where teachers were overwhelmed with desire to teach so much that they couldn't give some time for the students to adapt to the new environment, the new friends. It was suffocating.

Even so, Niou had not heard a single negative word until this very second.

And that was devouring every single oxygen around him.

Rikkaidai was the perfect school for those who seek knowledge; those whose oxygens were replaced with knowledges. Perhaps not necessarily true. There were people who simply desired the prestige that came along with the enrollment. Some were ambitious people who lived for tomorrow and were preparing themselves their safety net.

And of course there were- no, there was a lone person who lived solely for today, for the present. The person was called Niou Masaharu, and from today on, he would be called as the suicidal boy who jumped off from the rooftop of the school, which was 3 storeys high.

Niou pushed himself up and positioned himself at the very edge of the rooftop with his back facing the intimidating height. He could feel a stonger and colder breeze blowing against his back, as if a sign of protest. His lips formed a devious smirk.

_Let the grey be green with envy at the platinum._

And the sky cried.

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**My excuse for the slightly purple-prose narration and hidden content: Literature. Yes, I am studying literature, and it's getting into me. I sincerely apologize if I somehow abuse it here, but please do not hesitate to tell me. Regardless, I hope you enjoy this piece!****  
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	2. A Fortune's Fool

**Warning: Broken bone, slightly coarse language.**

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Call him an attention whore. Call him a tearaway. But rest assured for he was no idiot, and he was definitely anything but suicidal.

The departure from the rooftop was greeted with a shriek that pierced through the downpour. Through the plunge, he could see how those minuscule humans set their amazed gaze at him, seemingly oblivious to the rain. It seemed that their logics had plunged into chaos along with him, Niou smirked.

The soft air on his back was quickly substituted by a rough impact against multitude branches of a giant tree. He could feel his bones snapping every branches in his way. Or was it his bone? He was unsure. Regardless, everything was going accordingly.

And of course, Murphy's law violently objected.

Albeit the branches were enough to prevent his mortality, apparently the law decided that he needed an extra cushion. Niou could clearly see the fright in the eyes of a capped boy who was unfortunately sheltering underneath the said tree as he fell gently head

Again, Niou Masaharu was not an idiot. The boy might be an impromptu factor, unlike the tree, yet he would not allow any casualties in his act.

With a swift motion, he blindly shoved the boy away from his path. He succeeded in doing so, however in the cost of himself. The push had made him altered his position, a slight tilt that caused him to land on his right shoulder instead on his back. He didn't expect a painless outcome, neither did he expect a bone to be broken. And the loud snap that greeted his landing confirmed his fear.

Immediately the searing pain burn through his body, overloading his senses. He gritted his teeth, his body unconsciously curling into a fetal position. The washing rain combined with the building uproar drummed his hearings, effectively blocking his common sense. All he dared to see was the darkness behind his eyelids. All he dared to do was to succumb to the pain. Hell to his plan. Hell to everyone.

And hell to the boy.

Time seemed to stand still when he lied vulnerable on the muddy ground; his body covered with scratches and nursed a broken bone. The rain seemed to have stopped when he felt a human touch on his back. Had it? He could hear the commotion, but everything was gradually drowned by the nerve-wrecking agony that dominated his senses. Niou tried to open his eyes, but he could only see blurry olive images...-and purple? He didn't know; his eyes were too watery to see through, so he hid them in the dark once more.

A sound appeared to be louder than the others. Was it reaching to him? He wanted to answer, but as soon as he stopped gritting his teeth, the pain would wash over him tenfold. Perhaps it was not at fault. Yes, the broken bone was. So much for not being an idiot.

He's a fool. A fortune's fool.

Temptation to surrender to anguish and to yield to darkness was great, nevertheless Niou was unable to let his grasp off the reality yet. Not just yet. This stranger, the one who was closer to him than anyone else, the one that was brave enough to touch him; What was he going to do with him? His mind couldn't entangled itself from the cobweb of paranoia. Oh the darkness. The darkness the future held. The ambiguity.

Such was the fate of a man of the present.

Finally, time beat him down into submission, and he lost grip of reality into the realm of unconsciousness.

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**Disclaimer: A certain phrase in this drabble is taken from Romeo and Juliet and is certainly not mine :D**

**AN: See, I told you I will not abandon this story *grins in victory*  
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	3. Purple I

**This is slowly becoming a normal series... Anyways, this is supposed to be a long chapter, but I decided to cut it into half to make it more of a 'drabble'. Enjoy!**

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Purple.

It was the first thing that he saw as soon as he opened his eyes. Okay, not exactly. He saw the ceiling, with its innocent and pure whiteness, and then he saw the attention-striking purple. In a flash the memory of his descend struck him in the gut, wiping away the ephemeral tranquility. It didn't help that a jolt of pain washed through him with the subtlest of movements.

Glancing to his right, he saw his right hand completely wrapped in bandage as it lies innocently above the bed sheet. He also felt bandages sticking adhesively to various parts of his body, including his face. His trousers were still with him, Niou noticed as he gazed down, but his shirt had been replaced by another wrapping of bandages.

As if that were not astonishing enough, he saw the same shade of purple that he had seen during his agony. The Rikkaidai's student who was responsible for his current condition. Niou immediately glared at the purple-haired boy who had his back facing him, eyeing his every move.

The other boy, clad in his school uniform, was sitting on a chair behind a desk facing the wall near the door. Strange, Niou thought. He believed that he was lying in the infirmary, yet he could not see anyone but the boy. The room was oddly free of medicinal scent; an air freshener took over in its place. Moreover, there was no medicine in sight. A wooden wardrobe was the only other furniture in the room, which was at the boy's extreme left. It made the room deceivingly spacious than its true size.

There was no response from the other boy, so Niou apatheticly glanced around his surroundings.

White.

Everything was white. Everything but the furnitures.

Suddenly Niou felt the urge to smash the said colour away from his sight.

The room was eerily white, with white walls, white ceilings, and even white tiles. The window at his left was also adorned with snow-coloured curtain, concealing the day's sunlight- if there was. It irked Niou how he was once again in the dark. What time was it? How long had he passed out?

Demanding an answer, he threw his gaze back to the unknowing boy. It took ages for him to notice Niou's consciousness, provided that he had to turn his wheeled chair and met Niou's cerulean orbs directly in order to notice it.

"I see you are awake, Masaharu-kun"

Niou rolled his eyes as the other boy greeted him, albeit it was rather disturbing to have his name being called as such. Niou had countless questions to ask him, but he decided to give him the silent treatment first. Never give out your true skin too easily, one would say.

"I have to say that you have done such a reckless thing. What you do will not only bring shame to your family and your names, but also the school and every student in it."

Niou frowned, though he continued glaring at the boy from the corner of his eyes. _Great, a self-proclaimed gentleman. _He scorned inwardly. Still, Niou's mouth remained sealed.

Stagnant silence lingered in the air between them. Neither moved. Neither spoke up. It was as if time froze once again.

If the purple boy was annoyed, he did not show it. Or he hid it behind his glinting glasses that he seemed to fix with his two fingers every time he wanted to speak up.

"I apologize. I forgot to introduce myself." The boy was the first to break the silence. "My name is Yagyuu Hiroshi."

"It must be uncomfortable for you to regain your consciousness in such a foreign place." Niou could sense the invitation for a conversation behind Yagyuu's words.

How odd, Niou thought. The way he spoke was not ordinary for a student. Too formal. Too pretentious.

Niou waited for him to continue, and he was disappointed. Yagyuu clearly had no intention to do so, and was content with eyeing his figure in silence. He sighed. It was a battle for him to lose. He was too badly handicapped to win.

But he would not be the one to ask him.

Despite his body's protest, running through his nerves Niou forced himself up. The pain shot through his right shoulder the second he moved, and his left hand reflexively go to cover the source of pain as if it was a cure. Slowly, he brought his body away from the fluffy bed- from the comfort to a sitting position. He did not bother to hide the agony from his face.

In fact, he tried to display it as clearly as possible. It was hard to suppress the agonizing pain anyway. He grimaced and panted when he successfully brought himself to a sitting position.

_What will you do, Hiroshi Yagyuu?_

Nothing.

Hiroshi Yagyuu simply sit there, unperturbed by the show. With his emotion perfectly masked by his glasses, he observed every inch of Niou's stuggle without as much as wince. If Niou was an ordinary person, he would be extremely insulted by now.

But no ordinary person would jump off the rooftop for fun, and henceforth, Niou grinned.

"You..." Niou began, his voice was surprisingly hoarse. "Are a liar, aren't you?"

The accusation defrosted the purple-haired boy.

"I'm sorry?"

"Feigning grey, you're actually purple inside, _puri_."

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**This story feels so empty...Anyways, I know it's quite dark and Niou's kind of weird and crazy, but that's just how I portray Niou :D**


	4. Purple II

**The word count is increasing per chapter. Obviously this is no longer a drabble XP. Anyways, enjoy this penultimate chapter!**

**Warning: One bad word :D  
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The shocked expression he gave was, as usual, exhilarating. It was a mixture of astonishment and dismay. The child of shenanigans were always a pleasure to see.

Although there might be hundreds of grey, dull, boring Rikkai students, a handful were actually trouble seekers deep inside. And the one in the same room as him was a gentleman who knew all the positive things to say like the back of his hands yet had zero qualms of the negative things. Maybe he enjoyed the bad, the evil. Maybe he enjoyed seeing Niou suffering.

Perfect. Exactly the outcome that Niou had planned, that was to bring out the true colour of the world.

The world would be boring if it was only filled with grey, wouldn't it?

"Let me spell it out for you." Niou slowly shoved his right leg off the bed with a wince. "When I fall, you...rushed to be my hero." Then his left leg followed. "Then you brought me to your house...just because you have to act like a gentleman." He tried to shift his body to face Yagyuu directly, but it was impossible without incurring any pain.

"Fuck..." Niou cursed, his left hand gripping the throbbing shoulder tightly. Again, Yagyuu seemed to show no sign of concern, not even in the slightest. He decided to test him one last time before he would drag his body out of that house as if the house was cursed.

"Any last words?"

The response was swift without any delay. "I will not entertain those who refuse to do so themselves. Masaharu-kun, I have been expecting you to justify your act, just as how you expect me to elaborate mine."

Niou rolled his eyes before he proceeded to struggle to stand up.

"Before you get out, allow me to warn you." Yagyuu stood up and walked towards Niou who glared fiercely at him. He stopped a step away from the injured boy and extended his hand. "When the world is too 'grey', as you call it, perhaps you may want to accommodate and adapt to it."

"Says the one with striking purple hair." Jested Niou. "You like this, dont you? The hype, the attention, the unordinary. Be honest, I am the black sheep here, and you like to admire me, because that's the person you are inside. Stop lying to yourself, gentleman." With that, Niou slapped Yagyuu's hand away.

The hand that was slapped away turned and pushed Yagyuu's glasses back to place. If he was not wearing his glasses, Niou could see how narrow Yagyuu's eyes were. "Then I assume you believe I gain pleasure in doing _this_?" Yagyuu swiftly took Niou's injured arm and twist it above his broken shoulder to his back, earning a agonizing cry from the boy.

"You son of a-"

"The answer is: I don't. I save you because I care. I tend to your wounds because that is what a gentleman should be. I am a gentleman because that's how you I want the society to look me as. I recall you called me purple, a liar. I am, but if you consider all people who are not reckless as a liar, then you will be surely disappointed as the world is full of them."

It was rather difficult to focus on Yagyuu's words when the pain was running though his nerves, and even more to reply. Yagyuu seemed to be oblivious to his discomfort, however.

"I'm sorry but this is the only way to have you listen to me." Yagyuu apologized, bending the damaged arm further against its normal course. A chocked scream escaped Niou's lips as he struggled to break free to no avail. In the end, all it did was consuming his energy, and leaving him gasping for air.

"I will not break the shoulder that I have carefully tended hours ago, but I will push it to its limits to wake you up. Masaharu-kun, you nearly committed suicide _simply_ out of lies in society and in yourself, correct? Moreover, you almost harm an innocent boy along the way. What do you think will you accomplish from that?"

_Coaxing other people's true colour- their face when disaster strikes_ Niou wanted to say that, but his throat refused to cooperate with him. He could only hear himself panting and gasping for air pathetically.

"You broke you arm, the boy earned some bruises from the rough shoving, and your parents are really concerned about your well-being and your future career as a tennis player." Niou's eyes widened at that statement. "They refused to have you hospitalized as that will bring a bad name to both you and your school."

As if Yagyuu's explanation wasn't enough, for contemplation, he reiterated. "So allow me to repeat again,"

"Exactly _what_ have you accomplished by jumping off the roof?"

And Niou's mind was as numb as how the pain had made his body. He couldn't even sense his arm being freed and rested gently to his sides.

Niou wanted to laugh so badly, and he did. What a tragic hero, he thought. He just wanted to free everyone from the chain of norm, yet here he was, reminded of how important it was to be selfish. Even if he was the only coloured one in this monochrome world, it would be meaningless to try and convert the world himself.

Why was he stupid enough to actually try suicide for fun?

Ah, he was too tired to even think clearly...

"Your parents wanted to come here, but my parents suggested them to let you rest and come tomorrow. Honestly, you're not in the condition to even explain your actions to me, let alone to them." Yagyuu took a seat beside Niou and slowly unwrapped the bandage from his elbow to his shoulder.

Silence lingered between them, only to be broken by the casual whip of bandages and gasping of air that gradually diminished. A while after Niou completely breathed normally, he spoke up, "You..._what_ is your true colour?"

Yagyuu paused his work for a second before he continued.

"Everything that you see in this room is true, because white can only lighten a colour, not obscure it."

Niou gave him a look, but Yagyuu simply ignored him and focus on unwrapping the bandage. The colour of purple...He suddenly remembered a particular line he read from the website.

_Purple is the colour of good judgment, the colour of people seeking spiritual fulfillment._

Yagyuu's true colour was maybe the colour that always attracted attention on his head.

He could definitely trust people like him. But before that,

"You have a weird sense of colour. Your hair, your room, everything." Niou said with a chuckle.

For once, Niou was able to accept being ignorant of his surroundings. What time was it? He couldn't care less for now.

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**I feel that Niou is too mentally disturbed and Yagyuu is too mature for their age...sigh. Anyway, be prepared for the last chapter!  
The reason why I persist in updating (in case someone find this story annoyingly persistent): I want to finish a story for once~ :)****  
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	5. The Rust

**The last chapter is here! I must say I really have no idea whether this fic is enjoyable or not (coughnoreviewatallcough), but clearly ending a fic for the first time is quite enjoyable personally (I promised you I will). So, enjoy~**

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One week had passed since the beginning of school term. With his arms helplessly rested on his arm sling, Niou marched on to his destination: the rooftop. However, he was not there to change the colour of the world this time. There was no no rule he was planning to break currently.

It was recess, and he had promised a certain someone to meet at that date and time. The person had been someone normal who unfortunately stumbled upon Niou's daring act. They might not even talk to each other given another chance.

Opening the door, Niou was greeted by the sight of the good Samaritan. He was reading a book as he sat comfortably near a familiar edge of the rooftop. _Too familiar, _Niou frowned. It was the exact spot where Niou had been a week ago, challenging death.

Yagyuu seemed to hear the sound of the door for he closed the book, stood up and turned around to greet Niou. "Good morning, Masaharu-kun. What business do you wish to have with me?"

Gentleman as always, Nious scorned inwardly. This boy was the exact definition of grey, the colour that he despised in life. Yet here he was, ready to give something important to him. Slowly Niou took a step closer to the purple-haired boy. If Yagyuu was anxious, it was cleverly hidden behind his glasses.

When Niou was a step away from Yagyuu, his left arm rose up and sneaked inside his arm sling. "Here you go." Niou took out something square covered in white wrapper and gave it to Yagyuu. The boy had to be really puzzled for it was shown crystal clear by his expression. Nonetheless he accepted it, and opened it the second after- only to be further baffled by the sight of the object he had received.

"Masaharu-kun, what is the-"

"It's lacking the 'he', I know. I call it, 'The Rust', without the 'he'." Niou interrupted before Yagyuu finished. He was about to leave the place when Yagyuu seek to satisfy his confusion once again.

"You give me a steel? A _rusty _steel?" Yagyuu was completely oblivious to the meaning of the gift, and Niou did not seek to entertain the poor boy's perplexity.

"As I told you, it's called 'The Rust' without the 'he'. Do the math yourself." Niou turned his back on Yagyuu and walked towards the door, leaving Yagyuu dumbfounded with a rusty steel on his hands.

"Oh, and one more thing," Niou stopped in his tracks just before he opened the door. "I will see you in tennis training today, and I trust you will lend me your assistance in helping me to be a left-handed player." Giving the hint, Niou left with a satisfied grin across his face.

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**I pray now you understand what is the meaning of the title (the answer is used twice in the story overall), and what Niou actually gave to Yagyuu (really vague and weird, I know). Dear readers, please give any comments on this fic, and also go to my profile and vote in the poll there. I'll see you on my next story!  
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**Note: in case if you want to blame me for not following the canon by having Yagyuu calling Niou 'Masaharu-kun', I take Masaharu as Niou's family name, and they are definitely not close enough to be calling each other by the first name.  
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